Some Good Riding

Todays ride had me riding with two new riding partners.  I can not tell you how much fun it is to have someone to ride with.  For me, it is not about how fast we are riding, but the great company....and, these guys are great company!!  We put on a few ticks over 31 miles this morning.  I am looking forward to some more of this great fun plus possibly adding a few more riders.  One of them has been talking of getting riding club together, so if you are reading this and are in the area...let me know.

 Yesterdays ride had me stopping for a FTF in the caching world and getting in some miles as an added bonus.  I knew by the forecast that the wind would be a factor on this days ride  One of those where I fought a mild wind for 25 miles then had a very enjoyable 16 miles with a nice wind at the back before turning back 16 miles into a stronger wind that was switching to a full on head wind.  It's all part of the ride and when you know its coming, it does make it easier.  

 It's 5 o'clock here...must mean it's beer time. 

 After I had snapped the 5 oclock pic, this fox came running down the road with dinner hanging from its jaws.  It got really close, but I was too slow with the camera back out to get a good picture.  This is the second time I have saw this fox here. 

 I have loaded some of these pictures because I have have a friend whom I think reads this drivel every now and then.  

 The Red Lake Resort.

 Totagatic River

 Along side the beautiful bicycle is Hydrant for refilling fire trucks.  There are a lot of these in our rural area.  

 The hydrant into the river.

 Another river picture.

This is the old Chittamo School.  If anyone is interested, here is a link for Chittamo.

As always, Thanks for reading!

and

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Creature

This past weekend I loaded up the backpack with some geocache goods and a lunch.  I set out to get some exercise, empty some of the contents, have a good time and I succeeded all.  I had a friend comment on the orange bike and the camo clothing not making a lot of sense.  hehehe   Clashing one might say.  The bugs, mosquitoes and wood-ticks are very thick now...especially where I was at today.  The clothes I am wearing here are light weight Russell Outdoor brand camo from Gander Mountain treated with Permetrin.  I also put a little bug dope on my exposed skin. I rode down some grassy trails along with walking through a few miles of bug/tick infested territory.  At the end of the day...NO ticks and as an added bonus, the bugs didn't bother me either.  This is a great set up for exploring the bush!  I only saw one vehicle all day, although I did see where one other had left tracks while was off the bike walking the woods.  

A sliver truck pulled up just as I was getting back on the bike.  The passenger snapped this picture.  They had tracked me from where I got on the dirt road about 9 miles back wondering what the heck was making the track in the road...now they knew.  Tracks were easy to see from the previous days rain.  I think they were looking for bear and other creatures, but they came upon me.  hehehe  It was very nice to visit with them and she later made contact with me to see if I wanted the picture.  Yep, I do.  So, Thanks to Cindy for the great photo!! 

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Great Riding Weather

 Just dropping in a few photos from the riding so far this week.  I knew I would be fighting a slight head wind, but I headed to Superior Wednesday.  I stopped by one of Wisconsin's gems,  Pattison State Park. (linked)

Twin Little Manitou Falls

 Big Manitou Falls...165 foot drop this one is.  

 I ride mostly country roads, but on this day the ride was to Superior.  I found that just cruising the city streets can add up miles fast.  I ended the day with a little over 66 miles.

Another ride this week took me out through the burn area of the Germann Road forest fire that started on May 14th and burned about 8000 acres.  Although it is hard to put a measure to this, it burned about 9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide.  It took 47 structures with 17 of them being homes. I will put a couple links (here)  and  (here...this one is the DNR report). I rode Douglas County Y to get out to this area...22.5 miles of Bad bad road and but the 16 miles on County A back...Good road!

I met my son's neighbor and did this ride with him.  It was great to have company and we plan to do some more riding together.  This week has been great riding weather.  

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Been Awhile

Yep...still riding!  Earlier this month, we traveled to the Minneapolis, MN to ride a charity ride. This one was the Tour de Cure. It is a ride to help fight diabetes. I enjoy this ride not only because it is for a good cause but also because of the route.  It rides the trails and bike paths of the St. Paul/Minneapolis area and because of that, it is like nothing I usually ride.  My rides are mostly in the sticks of up north WI...quiet roads, dirt roads and mountain bike trails.  I am amazed at the trail system they have there.  It is fantastic.  It seems as though there are trails everywhere. It's all that and also a great group of friends I do this ride with.

 Today had me riding carbon.  When I reset the computer on it, I noticed I haven't rode this bike for two years.  I know I had good intentions last summer, because I remember getting it ready to ride...must not have though. The trip computer had the last ride at 146 miles and I remember that ride and it was almost two years ago.  So today, it was three of my sisters delicious cookies and hit the road.  Felt like a rocket ship, although I know better.  Must have been the fuel the cookies provided.  Oh, and only 31 miles today.

 I have always though this area looked like a nice area to throw a canoe or kayak in and fish.

 If a person does fish here, might want to be careful.  These plants are Poison Ivy...more info linked here.  We have a lot of that around here and I think a lot of people do not identify it correctly. Or, confuse it with other plants.  But either way, you do want to avoid it.

Up stream from the Poison Ivy is the remnants of where the road used to go.

I also have had the Fat-bike out a couple times.  In the photo above I was riding some of the CAMBA single track near Hayward, WI.  The Fat-bike is fun on the single track, but it will not replace the Anthem mountain bike.  Next time single tracking will be on the Anthem.

I now tell myself..."see, that didn't take so long to load a blog post."  I don't know why, but I sometimes get to where when I do spend time on the computer, I just do not find it in me to do the whole blog thing.  I don't think it's a bad thing, but I do enjoy it.  Now off to catch up on others...Thanks for reading!!

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Hard to Forget Rides

 I had some geocaches I wanted to drop off, so what better mode of transportation than the Fatty. It was the first time on the Fat-bike since the snow has gone.  I had cleaned and lubed it before I left this morning and you would never had guessed it when I returned.  The bike and I were coated with a gooey slippery nasty crud.  I was out for 4 hours 6 minutes today. I dodged rain showers, rode some nice hard packed trail, some not so hard packed trail, ate a quick lunch I had packed and had a blast!  Hard to forget rides like this.

 All is good here...smooth sailing.  Just enough ruts and mud to keep it interesting.

 This was the reason for riding the Fat-bike, because there is no driving this road. 

 Skirting the edges of the soft stuff. 

Still able to ride the edge here. 

 OK...now we are getting serious. Get up some speed, not too much...just right.  Now get the right gear.  Don't quit and squish right through.

 Now this one is a little deep.  I barely made this one.  Toes were lapping water and the bottom of these do not have a hard bottom. But once committed, there was no turning back.  I was surprised I made all of these without stalling out. But I was barely moving towards the end of this one.

 The creeks and rivers are slowly coming down from the spring run off.

I think this bridge will require some work in the near future.  If you sneak a peak and peer in the hole, you can see clear to the creek. Not good.   

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

PS...As always, thanks for reading and commenting.

About Time

 We are having another go at spring here in the north of Wisconsin.  Today had temperatures in the 70's F and very little wind, which made for some nice riding today.  It is a welcome change from the cold and very windy weather we have become accustomed to this spring.  The above picture is of the Eau Claire River. 

 Just last week in nearby Hayward, they groomed a portion of the Birkie trail for skiing, although the Hayward area received about 16" of snow to our 2". The trail above is a winter use only for snowmobile and ATV's.  There may, or may not, have been a Fat-tire on this trail this winter also.

 The Wascott Fire Hall.

 This is the street in Gordon, WI where I learned how to ride a bicycle...a blue one.

 And this is the field where I learned how to drive a car.  We were helping family friends hay this field and when we were done, my parents taught me how to drive their car.  It was a 1966 Ford with a 3 on the tree...a blue one. I think of that day every time I go by here.

 That log floating out there is going to have to change direction if it's going to fit through the culvert it is heading for. 

The small lakes around here are now free of ice.  The larger deeper lakes are still iced in.  We had our fishing opener this past weekend and the ice still on the lakes have been the talk of the town.  It is the first time I that I can remember having ice for the opener, at least to where a person couldn't get out with a boat.  Some people ice fished for the opener and I heard reports of 16" of ice on a couple lakes.  I am not complaining about the weather we have been having this spring, but the weather today...eh...about time!

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Charity Riding

 Last weekend had me riding the Mn Ironman bicycle ride.  I was waiting to post this up to see if they would release the amount of riders they had ride.  I had heard several reports of over 5,000 riders, but did not find anywhere to verify that.  Judging by the amount of autos, the premium of parking and the amount of people at the start/finish,  I believe it.  We arrived early morning the day of the event, although I wasn't in a hurry to register in because I knew from past experience that registration goes fast.  After checking in about 6:50, I walked the 1/4 mile back to car, readied the bicycle, suited up and headed out near the 7:15 mark.
Edit...it has been verified at 4,697 riders. I found the e-mail Doug mentioned.  They are aware of the hits and misses.  

 I rode the 50 mile route rather than my usual century.  We had other things to do, so I felt lucky just to get in the 50.  I think they listed it as 53 on the profile map and that is very near what I had on the Garmin   We had a very strong wind helping us on the beginning of loop.  Speeds were very high on the first section.  Surprisingly, the speeds stayed not bad on the return also.

 Because I was out early the first rest stop was easy to get in and out of.  The second stop was located where two loops came together.  That one was much more crowded.  I made a trip to the biffy, but skipped the long snack line.

 There are always some pacelines on rides like this.  If I choose to join one, I try to pick and choose wisely.  A person can tell by riding at the back of the pack for short ways what you're getting into.  I hooked up with a group of about 20 for a couple miles, (not these guys pictured above) that I just wasn't comfortable with.  The roads had some potholes, and pot holes is an understatement, but that group had some riders making quick movements even when the roads were good.  I decided to let them go.  Glad I did.  As we were on a slight downhill with some good speed, I could see them a couple hundred yards ahead of me.  That is when disaster hit for them.  There were bicycles and bodies flying.  A sag vehicle happened to be right behind them, so they had help right away.  It looked like they were all sitting up as I rode on.

From what I saw, the routes were excellent.  The bathrooms at the start/finish line had very long lines.  One person made the comment, 5 bathrooms for 5,000 people...not good.  There were many more bathrooms at the rest stops and from what I saw didn't seem to be a problem there. The lunch line was also extremely long.  I didn't take many pictures.  I do not know why.  I guess some days are not picture days for me.  It was a great time and I will do it again!

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

Turning the Corner

 I think we are turning the corner on our spring.  Today was first day this year for me riding a road bike.  I felt like a rocket on that road bike after riding the Fat-tire, the studded fixed gear and the my touring unit with fenders, racks and such...but I knew better.  It will take more than that to fool me, because after all, it's not my first rodeo. 

 The nearby city of Duluth, Mn set snow fall records for the month of April.  I think it was somewhere over 50" in month of April alone.  The most snow of any month on record.  We still have plenty of ice on our lakes and just yesterday I see a person out ice fishing and used an ATV to get to the fishing spot.  I have heard reports of this being the latest ice out from local lake residents that keep track of such things.   

The ride today was a quick one as I had things to do today, but with the temperature around 65°F and the warmest so far this year, I needed to get out.  

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!

We Will Manage

 We were blessed with between 18 and 20 inches of snow on Friday.  It is looking like a very late spring here in northern WI... especially seeing how they are predicting 7 to 11 inches tonight. We will manage.

 The temperature rose today to right around the 50°F mark. I was overdressed today and needed to shed some clothing a little ways into the ride.

 I saw this little guy, or girl, Raccoon today.  It sure was nice of him/her to give me a break in middle of this little climb.

I suppose I could have just rode around around her/him, but seeing things like this is some of the reason I ride to begin with.  Ahhhhh, the snow just started as I am finishing this up.  Like I said before, we will manage.

Lets get outdoors and have some fun!!